Ann Leckie

Or, actually, “the winners are.”

So! There were fifty-two entries. Or, technically, fifty-two entrants. Several of those included more than one proposed concluding line. A few of those were actually from different people in the same household or at least sharing the same email address.

I hadn’t said anything about multiple entries, so I let that stand. I stripped the lines of their identifying information and handed them over to my panel of distinguished judges. Those judges were: Margo-Lea Hurwicz, Anna Schwind, and Rachel Swirsky.

After much deliberation, they gave me their decisions. Competition was fierce! I personally laughed out loud several times while reading the entries.

There were a few common themes in the entries. A couple of the winners are instances of these, in each case the one the judges thought the best example of its type. But all the entries were fabulous, and I want to thank everyone for entering. Reading the entries was great fun, and the judges had fun, and I hope you’ve all had fun. In fact, I hope I can do something like this again some time.

So! To the results of the judging.

First place goes to Genevieve B:

There once was a duck who was God,
Who said, “It’s exceedingly odd.
I fly when I wish
and I swim like a fish,
But my quacking’s dogmatically flawed.

Genevieve will be getting a 3oz packet of Benefit tea, an infuser, and Lieutenant Peepsarwat to keep her company while she drinks it.

Second place goes to Lord Peter Wolohan. Who actually sent two proposed last lines. And as it happened, the judges told me they wanted to award four instead of three because they couldn’t bring themselves to cut the fourth one. And I said “Sure!” because, you know, why not? And then when I went to match the lines to the authors, I discovered that two of them were by Lord Peter. Who is only getting one bag of tea–he has chosen EtrepaBo. And his lines tie for second place. They are:

But drinking tea with this bill is a sod.

and

I’m a deity, demonstratum est quod.

Third place goes to enemyofperfect, who made us all giggle with their entry:

And my cock’s more a corkscrew than rod.

Enemyofperfect is not a tea drinker! However, I do actually have a not-tea blend at Adagio, I just haven’t made it public until now. I was trying to come up with some kind of Orsian Not Tea thing. In the end I decided that if you want to have some Orsian Not Tea, you probably want some of that iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk in it. But this mate blend I made up is actually really nice. It’s mate with some chocolate (and I think some hazelnut, because it’s based on Adagio’s mocha mate blend) and peppercorns for a little spicy kick. So I’ll be sending enemyofperfect a 3oz packet of Not Orsian Tea.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

I had read through all the entries. And I was determined to leave the decisions entirely up to the judges. But there were two that I thought really ought to get some kind of special notice. And since it was my contest, I decided to declare two Honorable Mentions.

The first goes to Clare for:

Yet I cannot compete with the Raad.

Quite a lot of entrants went to some (very much appreciated) effort to tie the last line in with the books and/or the universe. See, for instance, third place above. But this one in particular did so in very explicit fashion, even trying really hard to get “Radchaai” in there. I felt this deserved some extra appreciation.

And Honorable Mention number two, comes from writer Kate Orman, best known for her Doctor Who novels. It was the most meta of all the entries, I felt, and one of the several that made my family look at me funny when I laughed at it:

But my penis – (That’s quite enough. — Mod)

I realized I wanted to send something to my two honorable mentions. I pondered sending a bag of dicks, and while that seemed clever, I wasn’t certain it was really the right choice. Then I discovered I could send them a bag of ducks.

I ordered a bag just to be sure they were what they said they were. And I am here to tell you that they are, indeed, very tiny duck-shaped gummies, and also really really delicious. They’re made of fruit juice, fruit puree, and pectin and my goodness they’re very fruity flavored. So, Clare and Kate, I will be mailing you your bag of ducks in the next day or two. The tea and infusers (and squooshy lieutenant) will be going out just as soon as the tea actually gets here.

Thanks again to everyone who entered–I had so much fun doing this, and reading all of your entries.

Want an ebook copy of Ancillary Sword? You can buy one now for just $4.99. In the US, anyway. I don’t know if there’s a similar price cut for the UK, although it looks like there might be.

Also I think this price is available all through the rest of July.

So! You can get your $4.99 ebook of Ancillary Sword from Kobo, or from Barnes and Noble, or from Amazon.

For some reason, when I try to go directly to the Nook version on the Barnes and Noble site it’s giving me an error. Hoping they get that cleared up.

So, if you’ve only read the sample in the Hugo packet and want the rest, or if you borrowed AS from the library (yay, libraries!) and want your own copy, now’s a good time to grab the ebook of Ancillary Sword.

(Also, don’t forget that Ancillary Mercy is available for pre-order. Even, yes, at Amazon this year.)

Or, more accurately, the limerick.

Those of you who have read Ancillary Sword may remember that at a certain point, Breq asks someone to tell her, in verse, how God is like a duck. And that person replies,

There once was a duck who was God,
Who said, “It’s exceedingly odd.
I fly when I wish
and I swim like a fish,

And she couldn’t get any further. Well, readers, neither could I. And it’s summer in this hemisphere of Earth, and I’ve got some tea to give away. So!

By June 30th, send me your proposed last line for the duck limerick to poem@annleckie.com. My panel of judges will choose three winners. First place will get: one genuine four inch high stuffed Lieutenant Peepsarwat!

(All right, that’s actually a genuine stuffed purple Peep from Easter that I could not resist purchasing for precisely this occasion.) First place will also get one three ounce bag of an Imperial Radch themed tea from Adagio.

Winner’s choice, though sometimes availability is weird so particular blends may be out of stock at the end of June. I am also throwing in a tea infuser, just in case you’re not set up to do loose leaf tea conveniently. (Loose leaf tea is quite convenient once you’ve got a pot and/or removable infuser.)

The plant and the cup aren’t included, they’re just in the picture to look pretty.

Second and third place will get one bag each of an Imperial Radch themed tea! Same conditions as above–winner’s choice, but obviously I can’t send you a blend that’s not available. Oh, and a tea infuser.

So fire up those rhyming engines! Start playing with what might scan. Ponder that deep, ageless philosophical question: How is God like a duck? And send me your conclusion by June 30 of this year.

Editing to add, what I should have remembered to say at first–I will send prizes anywhere. There are no geographical restrictions.

As the post title says, the Hugo Packet is available for download.

You’ll need your Hugo voter PIN, which if you’ve forgotten it you can request here.

Like last year, Orbit has included the first hundred or so pages of Ancillary Sword in the Hugo Packet, rather than the full novel. And it looks like there are complete copies of The Goblin Emperor and The Three Body Problem, both of which I think you’ll enjoy (if you haven’t read either or both already).

You can still get a supporting membership, and with it the right to vote in the Hugos (and download the packet) and Worldcon site selection, by the way. If that’s something that interests you, well, click on over and sign up.

I sent in my site selection ballot this morning, as it happens. Helsinki 2017!!!!!!!!

I did not think I would be blogging today.

It’s a lovely Sunday, the weather is gorgeous, and so Mr. Leckie and I went out to the Shaw Nature Reserve for a nice long hike. Some of it is in cell phone range, but most of it is not, at least not for my carrier. We saw turtles, and heard chorus after chorus of spring peepers, which fell silent as soon as we got near them, and daffodils, and a few early-blooming wildflowers, and I got all mud-spattered and it was lovely.

Then we walked back into cell phone range. And my phone started buzzing. And kept buzzing. And I said to Mr. Leckie, “I wonder what happened” and looked, and it turns out that Ancillary Sword has won the BSFA for Best Novel.

I knew it was a nominee, of course. But I figured Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon would probably win, which thought pleased me, so I went off on my hike without even considering what I might put in a blog post if it came to it.

The lovely and talented D. Franklin was there representing me, and I have no doubt did so fabulously. Super big thanks again, D! You rock!

And super big thanks to the members of the BSFA. I’m well aware that it’s not a common thing to win such an award two years in a row, let alone for a book and its sequel. I’m tremendously honored. Thank you so much.

I’ll close by suggesting that since most readers of my blog have probably already read Ancillary Sword, you might want to check out Lagoon. Or, really, anything by Nnedi Okorafor.

Yes, the news is out. Ancillary Sword has been nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel.

I have two things to say–first, thank you to all my readers and all the fans of the Ancillary books. You folks are awesome. You write by yourself never knowing if anyone will read what you’re writing, let alone whether or not they’ll like it, or think it worthy of any sort of honors. You do the work anyway, because it’s your work to do. So when it turns out someone likes it–maybe lots of someones!–that is the most amazing moment. Enough someones who not only like it, but think it worth of a Hugo? Beyond amazing, and all the more precious because it was unlooked for. I cannot thank you sufficiently.

The second thing. If the Hugos are something you care about (if they aren’t, just scroll past this, no worries), I am here to tell you that becoming a Hugo voter is not terribly difficult. You go to the website of the current Worldcon–that would be Sasquan this year– and read the instructions–that page has a link for currencies besides US dollars, but for US dollars, scroll down to where you can pick “Supporting Member” in the dropdown box. Fill out the rest of the form, pay your forty bucks, and there you go. Or you can mail in your membership form with a paper check, instructions at the link above. Then once your membership is processed you’ll get a PIN and a link to vote for the Hugos.

Once you’re a member of Sasquan, you’ll also be able to nominate for next year’s worldcon, by the way. So if you read something fabulous this year, jot it down somewhere so you can put it on your ballot for next year!

And this ought to go without saying, but I have no expectations that you’ll vote the way I would. In fact, I rarely ever even tell my close friends in private how I vote, so it’s not like any of you could do that if you wanted, except by accident. So. If the Hugos are something important to you, and you’ve got forty bucks kicking around, consider a supporting worldcon membership.

Back to the important thing–you’re all awesome, thank you so much.

So, I’ve known about this for a couple of days, but of course could say nothing. The ballot for the Nebula Awards is out, and Ancillary Sword is on it! Along with a lot of fabulous books and stories. Congratulations to all the nominees! It’s a great ballot. Rather like last year, I’m amazed at the thought that someone–some number of someones!–thought my book belonged among those others. It’s incredible to find myself in such wonderful company.